296 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
January 16 . 
Staffordshire, where Mr Fleming, of whom all the 
gardening world has heard, is the head-gardener; and 
one so successful in what he undertakes, as strongly to. 
attract the attention of all first-rate gardeners. The 
gardens at this princely seat are not many feet, 1 
believe, above the river Trent, and situated in a flat 
district; to attain such eminent success, under such 
untoward circumstances, is, indeed, no trifling affair. 
But to come to the point. Can any experienced man in 
the culture of garden-fruit, affirm that there is no occasion 
to assume different levels in districts differing so much? 
I candidly declare, that were I to be sent off to the north 
of Ireland, or Scotland, to lay out a garden for a lady or 
gentleman desirous of coming out in the fruit way, and 
the soil, subsoil, and water-level were like the Trentham 
locality, that I should almost make the bottom of my 
“stations’ for fruit-trees on the ground surface. This, 
to persons unacquainted with the gist of the subject, 
may appear a mere conceit; but, if so, it is possible 
they may he in error. 
And somebody, perhaps, will say, “Why plant fruit- 
trees on soils which require so much particularity or 
fuss ? ” and, at first sight, it is a very reasonable question. 
The fact is, that the quality of the kitchen-garden or 
orchard is not always permitted to bias the whole affair ! 
of whether “ the seat ” shall be here or there. Valuable j 
as are these considerations, there are others of even : 
greater import; such as the neighbourhood we love 
best; the best scenery; economical ideas; and ante¬ 
cedents, perhaps, which nobody but those who originally 
determined on the spot can either know or appreciate 
in the same spirit. 
Such being the case, I have, I conceive, an apology for ; 
arguing as to the necessity of taking the character of the 
locality into consideration, when we come to the matter 
of tender fruit-trees. j 
Those who have watched the gardening press during 
the last half-score years, must have noticed the com¬ 
plaints occasionally urged on the evils of cold, clayey 
soils, or subsoils, and a damp, or cold condition of 
atmosphere, by persons in the south, high in fruit- 
culture. That they have most unhappy climates, and 
sterile, clayey soil; or, in other words, must be troubled 
with stagnated moisture, may be the case ; but admitting 
this, how is it that persons in the northern counties are 
so frequently astonished when they read their complaints 
of Marie Louise Pear, and such like good things failing, 
when they, the northerns, have plenty? 
But, here, in a moment, the question of stocks rushes 
iuto my mind. I have before suggested, that Pears on 
Quince unfortunately blossom, or swell in the bloom- • 
hud, earlier than those on the free, or wild Pear stock. 
Such is the result of my observation; if f am in error, 
doubtless, I shall be corrected. With all the real and 
supposed advantage of the Quince stock, then, this is 
a serious matter, and as I have before named the 
thing in the pages of The Cottage Gardener, and no 
one has confuted it, the fact would appear to the 
established. 
As to sterile, or cold soils, and bad subsoils, those 
planting tender fruit-trees can avoid both one and the 
other. Soils too adhesive may be corrected with ease, 
by the admixture of materials which are everywhere at 
hand for looking after. Most districts possess sand, or 
loose soil, within a reasonable distance; and if not, there 
are many substances equally efficient as correctors of 
the staple of the soil; charred weeds, turfy materials, 
or even burnt soil, are excellent correctives ; and then 
such things as charred sawdust, road scrapings, the limey 
rubbish from old buildings, ditchings from sandy or light 
soils, &c. Some, or, indeed, most of these are within 
reach of those who have stubborn soils to correct. 
Forecast and labour, of course, are requisite. The stub¬ 
born soil to be used should be thrown out to the action 
of the frost for several weeks, and when dry, in March, 
may be reduced, and the other materials incorporated. 
So much for the stubborn clays, or clayey soils, so often 
complained of. The management of wet subsoils, how¬ 
ever, in such cases as that quoted concerning Tren¬ 
tham, is another affair; especially when a dull level 
prevails, and that level, in the main, only a few feet 
above some stream in the locality. But even here the 
difficulty is by no means insurmountable; and this 
brings me at once to the practice of station making, 
which, by economising composts, and throwing off the 
fetters imposed by what is termed border-making, 
renders the fruit-trees perfectly independent of all 
excesses formed beneath, and reduces the question of 
tender fruit-culture to those atmospheric conditions, 
local or general, by which the foliage, blossoms, or fruit, 
may be affected. 
Surely, it does not require much logic to prove, 
that when one-half the volume of roots of a given tree is 
'above the ordinary ground level, those roots must be 
situated, on the average, in a drier medium. 
And suppose a case in which the natural surface-soil 
is only about a foot in depth, and that the planter 
desires about two feet of soil for his tree to grow in; is 
it not obvious, that by making what is called a hole for 
the tree, the roots, where they reach the side, will be 
either imprisoned, as it were, or enter an improper 
medium? 
I have no doubt that more trees would be planted 
above the usual level, but for the fear of an unsightly ap¬ 
pearance ; but if so, the conclusion is a wrong one. 
A tree planted above the level, or a high border, may be 
made to carry as high a finish as on the ordinary level; 
and if it were otherwise, surely, the point might be 
conceded for the sake of the welfare of the tree. I must 
confess that I have indulged in a somewhat rambling 
discourse; but I trust some useful hints will be found 
in my remarks. R. Errington. 
PROPAGATION BY MEANS OF ROOTS. 
Without going back further than the time when the 
Potato was introduced, we may assume that propagation 
by means of roots was established in England to in¬ 
crease “ seed Potatoes ;” cuttings of this root, with buds 
or “ eyes,” did as well as whole roots; but a whole 
Potato, without eyes, will not grow, increase, or multiply. 
Large roots of Yams, without eyes, will no more grow 
than Potatoes. I have seen Yams from many parts of 
the world—some as long as my leg, and thick as a 
child’s body; also Yam-like roots, widely apart from the 
real Yam family; not a particle of which would grow 
without an eye—nor the whole body, in one lump, if the 
eye parts were cut out. Still, one sees “ blind roots” of 
Dahlias, Pceonies, and others, make new roots, which 
suck in moisture as if they were acted on by leaves. 
In 1825 I received strict charge to water a blind 
Dahlia-root in a pot as regularly as any of the rest of 
the collection ; and I did so, and kept the tuber at the 
full stretch of its skin the whole summer and autumn; 
in October, this root was treated like a bulb which goes 
to rest for the winter. About that time some one wrote 
in a book, that the fibres of deciduous plants died in 
the winter; and the doctrine that leaves make roots, 
and roots leaves, was beginning to attract attention, 
even in the Highlands. My Dahlia-root was intended 
to prove two things, or disprove them; and an experi¬ 
ment, to disprove or confirm one thing more, was 
intrusted to a youug man named Grant, who was from 
the garden at Castle Grant, in Strathspey, that same 
October. The subject of Grant’s experiment was an 
Elm-tree in the corner of the framing ground; and the 
thing sought to be proved or disproved by it was the 
